Dr. Robert J. Cerfolio 
Dr. Mary Hawn 
Dr. Elizabeth Beierle 
Dr. Richard StahlThanks to the generosity of two former faculty members – Robert J. Cerfolio, M.D., and Mary T. Hawn, M.D. – and two current faculty members – Elizabeth A. Beierle, M.D., and Richard D. Stahl, M.D. – the UAB Department of Surgery has established four outstanding medical student awards:
- Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery
- Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student
- Elizabeth Beierle Medical Student Award for Research and Community Service
- Richard Stahl Medical Student Award for Outstanding Team Building and Leadership Skills
Cerfolio is an internationally known lung cancer surgeon who has pioneered robotic techniques that have been shown to reduce complications, increase survival rates and shorten hospital stays. He practiced at UAB for more than 20 years and, in June 2017, joined the faculty at NYU Langone as chief of clinical thoracic surgery. He is also the first director of the Lung Cancer Center at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Hawn is renowned as an accomplished surgeon, health services researcher and leader. She is a professor and chair of the Stanford University Department of Surgery. Her clinical area of specialty is minimally invasive foregut surgery. Hawn is a funded health services researcher whose projects focus on quality measurement and policy in surgical populations. She joined Stanford in 2015, after almost 14 years at UAB.
Beierle is a noted pediatric surgical oncologist and researcher whose work in developing novel therapeutics for pediatric cancers and leadership as a physician, investigator and educator have earned her local, as well as, national recognition. Beierle has been a part of the faculty at UAB since 2009 and has since mentored a number of undergraduate students, medical students, residents, fellows and graduate students in her basic science research lab.
Stahl, an accomplished and prolific gastrointestinal surgeon, was recruited to the faculty at UAB in 2010 as the medical director of bariatric surgery. Stahl is known for being one of the first and only surgeons in the state to have offered his patients the option of open gastric bypass and later the option of laparoscopic gastric bypass, more than a decade ago. Stahl is also a revered surgical educator and served as the director and subsequently the assistant director of UAB's surgery clerkship program for a total of eight years, only recently stepping down from both positions entirely in 2019. During his tenure as clerkship director, Stahl was twice presented with the UAB General Surgery Residency's Faculty Teaching Award.
Every spring, the winners of the Robert J. Cerfolio Award and the Mary T. Hawn Award – and now, starting in 2019, the Elizabeth Beierle Award and the Richard Stahl Award – are named at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine Birmingham Campus Awards’ Luncheon. The previous winners of these awards are listed below.
2018
Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery: Mary Smithson
Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student: Mary Smithson
2017
Robert J. Cerfolio Award for Outstanding Medical Student in General Surgery: Travis Hull
Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student: Lauren Theiss
2016
Mary T. Hawn Award for Outstanding Woman Medical Student: Meixi Ma